“It is probably not the ending that everybody anticipated,” says Tebay man Steve Hodgson of his decision to leave his Eden roots behind on Thursday and make a new home in war-torn Ukraine.
Originally, the plan was for his Ukrainian fiancée Natasha to get her passport visa and come to live with Steve in this country.
Steve said Natasha has finally got her documents so can get a visa to travel to the UK, but after he took a big load of aid over to Ukraine at Christmas, another opportunity opened up.
“The result of that was that I was offered a job as a volunteer aid co-ordinator when I met the charity organisation, Vezha.
“They said ‘would you like to come and work for us’ and I said ‘that sounds very nice, but I have got to go back to work’,” said tree surgeon Steve.
“That kind of sowed the seed then, but I’ve got to say once it kind of gets in your blood, you just can’t go back to normal life,” said Steve.
He then had another meeting with Vezha at which Steve was given more information about what his role would entail. Initially, it will be voluntary on Steve’s part, but they will be supporting him while he is there.
Steve will be co-ordinating aid between the UK and Ukraine, working with various charities.
“I will also be out delivering aid to refugees, helping clear things and reconstruction,” he said.
Meanwhile, Natasha is in Uzhhorod on the Slovakia border where she has been for nearly a year.
“We had already decided that we were thinking of staying in Ukraine and were looking at buying a house in a beautiful region of the country which Steve described as being “the Lake District on steroids, without the people.”
But Odessa, which is where Steve is going to be based with the charity, is 500 miles away from there. The organisation has bought a whole village and they are renovating the properties to make them into units for families and children who have been suffering trauma and lost fathers in the war.
“It is basically turning into a big rehabilitation village and there are houses in there for their workers,” said Steve, who has since been offered one of those houses.
He will live there rent free for six months and at the end of that period he will be given the option to buy it, should he want it.
“It takes try before you buy to a whole new level, I think,” said Steve.
Odessa, however, has been targeted in the last few days as part of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s thinking over the landmark gain deal which he has now ended that allowed vital food supplies to be shipped from Ukraine to Africa.
Steve said Putin was now saying that he can supply all the grain to Africa. They don’t need Ukraine’s grain, and the Russian leader was making sure they don’t need Ukraine’s grain by targeting shipping ports like Odessa.
“I speak to the charity every day. Everybody is safe, but there is a lot of damage. The charity’s office, which is in the centre of Odessa, is about 6km from the port area.
“They were saying they could hear the explosions and could feel the windows vibrating,” said Steve. The 44-tonne lorry, which was bought at cost by Steve from Ukrainian supporter Ken Harvey, of Harvey’s Transport in Bolton, will be handed over to the charity he will be working for in Ukraine and the aid will be distributed from there.
“We are ready to go next Thursday. I still have aid to collect.”
He has a lot of medical equipment, disinfectant and hand sanitiser, baby boxes donated by NHS Scotland, some clothing, surplus Army uniforms from the Catterick garrison, plus walking frames and crutches.
After delivering the wagon full of aid, he will visit Natasha in Uzhhorod before coming back to the UK to pick up his belongings. Steve has sold his house, “packed his life into four plastic boxes” and his tree surgery business, North West Arboriculturist Services, has been taken over by Northern Arb, run by Andrew Brookes, from Penrith.
He is then going to load up his trusty green truck, with a pick-up, on the trailer and head back to Ukraine and start his new life.
“Hopefully, by the end of August I will be there,” said Steve whose mum, Leone, lives in Tebay, and sister, Abby Clarke, is a postwoman in Kirkby Stephen.
“My sister has said, you have got to do what you have got to do, we support you, but we wish you weren’t going, sort of thing.
“I do understand, but I am not going into this naively. I like to think that I know what I am getting into with being an ex-Marine, but that was 25 years ago admittedly.
“Fingers crossed, I don’t think there will be a problem, I have been there when rockets are landing.
“I know the area, I know the country, I know the people. I just feel that this is the next stage of my life.”
Steve is planning to set off to Odesa on Thursday (3rd August).
Funding is still needed to help him with the £4,500 needed to deliver the truck and its aid to Ukraine. To support his cause visit https://gofund.me/da637c56
